Psalm 80

A PRAYER FOR RESTORATION
For the choir director: according to “The Lilies.” A testimony of Asaph. A psalm.

Listen, Shepherd of Israel,
who leads Joseph like a flock;
you who sit enthroned between the cherubim,
shine
2 on Ephraim,
Benjamin, and Manasseh.
Rally your power and come to save us.
3 Restore us, God;
make your face shine on us,
so that we may be saved.
4 Lord God of Armies,
how long will you be angry
with your people’s prayers?
5 You fed them the bread of tears
and gave them a full measure
of tears to drink.
6 You put us at odds with our neighbors;
our enemies mock us.
7 Restore us, God of Armies;
make your face shine on us, so that we may be saved.
8 You dug up a vine from Egypt;
you drove out the nations and planted it.
9 You cleared a place for it;
it took root and filled the land.
10 The mountains were covered by its shade,
and the mighty cedars with its branches.
11 It sent out sprouts toward the Sea
and shoots toward the River.
12 Why have you broken down its walls
so that all who pass by pick its fruit?
13 Boars from the forest tear at it
and creatures of the field feed on it.
14 Return, God of Armies.
Look down from heaven and see;
take care of this vine,
15 the root your right hand planted,
the son that you made strong for yourself.
16 It was cut down and burned;
they perish at the rebuke of your countenance.
17 Let your hand be with the man at your right hand,
with the son of man
you have made strong for yourself.
18 Then we will not turn away from you;
revive us, and we will call on your name.
19 Restore us, Lord, God of Armies;
make your face shine on us, so that we may be saved.

Psalm 81

A CALL TO OBEDIENCE
For the choir director: on the Gittith. Of Asaph.

Sing for joy to God our strength;
shout in triumph to the God of Jacob.
2 Lift up a song ​— ​play the tambourine,
the melodious lyre, and the harp.
3 Blow the ram’s horn on the day of our feasts
during the new moon
and during the full moon.
4 For this is a statute for Israel,
an ordinance of the God of Jacob.
5 He set it up as a decree for Joseph
when he went throughout the land of Egypt.
I heard an unfamiliar language:
6 “I relieved his shoulder from the burden;
his hands were freed from carrying the basket.
7 You called out in distress, and I rescued you;
I answered you from the thundercloud.
I tested you at the Waters of Meribah. Selah
8 Listen, my people, and I will admonish you.
Israel, if you would only listen to me!
9 There must not be a strange god among you;
you must not bow down to a foreign god.
10 I am the Lord your God,
who brought you up from the land of Egypt.
Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it.
11 “But my people did not listen to my voice;
Israel did not obey me.
12 So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts
to follow their own plans.
13 If only my people would listen to me
and Israel would follow my ways,
14 I would quickly subdue their enemies
and turn my hand against their foes.”
15 Those who hate the Lord
would cower to him;
their doom would last forever.
16 But he would feed Israel with the best wheat.
“I would satisfy you with honey from the rock.”

Psalm 82

A PLEA FOR RIGHTEOUS JUDGMENT
A psalm of Asaph.

God stands in the divine assembly;
he pronounces judgment among the gods:
2 “How long will you judge unjustly
and show partiality to the wicked? Selah
3 Provide justice for the needy and the fatherless;
uphold the rights of the oppressed and the destitute.
4 Rescue the poor and needy;
save them from the power of the wicked.”
5 They do not know or understand;
they wander in darkness.
All the foundations of the earth are shaken.
6 I said, “You are gods;
you are all sons of the Most High.
7 However, you will die like humans
and fall like any other ruler.”
8 Rise up, God, judge the earth,
for all the nations belong to you.

Psalm 83

PRAYER AGAINST ENEMIES
A song. A psalm of Asaph.

God, do not keep silent.
Do not be deaf, God; do not be quiet.
2 See how your enemies make an uproar;
those who hate you have acted arrogantly.
3 They devise clever schemes against your people;
they conspire against your treasured ones.
4 They say, “Come, let’s wipe them out as a nation
so that Israel’s name will no longer be remembered.”
5 For they have conspired with one mind;
they form an alliance against you —
6 the tents of Edom and the Ishmaelites,
Moab and the Hagrites,
7 Gebal, Ammon, and Amalek,
Philistia with the inhabitants of Tyre.
8 Even Assyria has joined them;
they lend support to the sons of Lot. Selah
9 Deal with them as you did with Midian,
as you did with Sisera
and Jabin at the Kishon River.
10 They were destroyed at En-dor;
they became manure for the ground.
11 Make their nobles like Oreb and Zeeb,
and all their tribal leaders like Zebah and Zalmunna,
12 who said, “Let’s seize God’s pastures for ourselves.”
13 Make them like tumbleweed, my God,
like straw before the wind.
14 As fire burns a forest,
as a flame blazes through mountains,
15 so pursue them with your tempest
and terrify them with your storm.
16 Cover their faces with shame
so that they will seek your name, Lord.
17 Let them be put to shame and terrified forever;
let them perish in disgrace.
18 May they know that you alone —
whose name is the Lord —
are the Most High over the whole earth.

Psalm 84

LONGING FOR GOD’S HOUSE
For the choir director: on the Gittith. A psalm of the sons of Korah.

How lovely is your dwelling place,
Lord of Armies.
2 I long and yearn
for the courts of the Lord;
my heart and flesh cry out for the living God.
3 Even a sparrow finds a home,
and a swallow, a nest for herself
where she places her young —
near your altars, Lord of Armies,
my King and my God.
4 How happy are those who reside in your house,
who praise you continually. Selah
5 Happy are the people whose strength is in you,
whose hearts are set on pilgrimage.
6 As they pass through the Valley of Baca,
they make it a source of spring water;
even the autumn rain will cover it with blessings.
7 They go from strength to strength;
each appears before God in Zion.
8 Lord God of Armies, hear my prayer;
listen, God of Jacob. Selah
9 Consider our shield, God;
look on the face of your anointed one.
10 Better a day in your courts
than a thousand anywhere else.
I would rather stand at the threshold of the house of my God
than live in the tents of wicked people.
11 For the Lord God is a sun and shield.
The Lord grants favor and honor;
he does not withhold the good
from those who live with integrity.
12 Happy is the person who trusts in you,
Lord of Armies!

Romans 8

THE LIFE-GIVING SPIRIT
Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus,
2 because the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death. 3 For what the law could not do since it was weakened by the flesh, God did. He condemned sin in the flesh by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh as a sin offering, 4 in order that the law’s requirement would be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. 5 For those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit have their minds set on the things of the Spirit. 6 Now the mindset of the flesh is death, but the mindset of the Spirit is life and peace. 7 The mindset of the flesh is hostile to God because it does not submit to God’s law. Indeed, it is unable to do so. 8 Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. 9 You, however, are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to him. 10 Now if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit gives life because of righteousness. 11 And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead lives in you, then he who raised Christ from the dead will also bring your mortal bodies to life through his Spirit who lives in you.

THE HOLY SPIRIT’S MINISTRIES
12 So then, brothers and sisters, we are not obligated to the flesh to live according to the flesh, 13 because if you live according to the flesh, you are going to die. But if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. 14 For all those led by God’s Spirit are God’s sons. 15 For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear. Instead, you received the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry out, “’Abba’, Father! ” 16 The Spirit himself testifies together with our spirit that we are God’s children, 17 and if children, also heirs ​— ​heirs of God and coheirs with Christ ​— ​if indeed we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.

FROM GROANS TO GLORY
18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is going to be revealed to us. 19 For the creation eagerly waits with anticipation for God’s sons to be revealed. 20 For the creation was subjected to futility ​— ​not willingly, but because of him who subjected it ​— ​in the hope 21 that the creation itself will also be set free from the bondage to decay into the glorious freedom of God’s children. 22 For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together with labor pains until now. 23 Not only that, but we ourselves who have the Spirit as the firstfruits ​— ​we also groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for adoption, the redemption of our bodies. 24 Now in this hope we were saved, but hope that is seen is not hope, because who hopes for what he sees? 25 Now if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with patience.

26 In the same way the Spirit also helps us in our weakness, because we do not know what to pray for as we should, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with inexpressible groanings. 27 And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because he intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.

28 We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God, who are called according to his purpose. 29 For those he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, so that he would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. 30 And those he predestined, he also called; and those he called, he also justified; and those he justified, he also glorified.

THE BELIEVER’S TRIUMPH
31 What, then, are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us? 32 He did not even spare his own Son but gave him up for us all. How will he not also with him grant us everything? 33 Who can bring an accusation against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies. 34 Who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is the one who died, but even more, has been raised; he also is at the right hand of God and intercedes for us. 35 Who can separate us from the love of Christ? Can affliction or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36 As it is written:

Because of you

we are being put to death all day long;

we are counted as sheep to be slaughtered.

37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

— Romans 8:1-39 (CSB)